He doesn't usually work in the dark under a daylight lamp, but I preferred it with the highlights darkened. I've kept the face soft but sharpened the hands, watch and eye glass as I think it looks better that way.

The sharpening on the hand versus less on the face looks a little odd when you point it out, but when you don't know about it, it works subconsciously like a shallow DOF effect, only without the blurring!

I think that focusing on the hand rather than the face was the right thing to do. It emphasizes what he's doing rather than his expression, which I think looks better in this case.

The shot is really nice and well composed, though I don't know about the lamp cutting in like that, but that's just my opinion, nice job

Thank you for the feedback, much appreciated. You're right about the lamp, but on some occasions he needs the light above what he's working on. I think some kind of old fashioned looking lamp would be good though.